"The Virgin Birth: God Does the Impossible "

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now, let's get to the Word of God. His name was Enrico Fermi. He was an Italian. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938.

In that very same year, he fled the regime of Mussolini and came to America where he eventually became professor of physics at the University of Chicago. Fermi was responsible for one of, if not the, greatest scientific accomplishment in human history. Because you see, on December the 2nd, 1942, Fermi gathered with his team of scientists in a squash court underneath Stagg Field in Chicago at the University of Chicago. And in front of them was what they called Chicago Pile Number 1. It was a 400 ton pile of graphite bricks impregnated with uranium pellets. And at Fermi's command, the cadmium control rods were pulled out of the pile. And at 3.36 p.m. on December the 2nd, 1942, the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in human history occurred.

Now the Stagg Field squash court was demolished in 1957. But the impact of what happened there on December the 2nd, 1942, has literally transformed the world that we live in. Of the 30 million people that are hospitalized in the United States every year, a third of them are treated with nuclear medicine. Consumer goods from smoke detectors all the way to non-stick frying pans depend on nuclear technology. One-sixth of the world's supply of electricity is supplied by nuclear reactors.

All of America's submarines, 84 Attack and 34 Ballistic, are powered by nuclear reactors. And finally, let's not forget nuclear weapons. Fermi's discovery led to the dropping of the first two atomic bombs, nicknamed Little Boy and Fat Man.

And they killed over 100,000 people. But today's thermonuclear weapons make these two bombs look like cap pistols, really. And Alvin Weinberg, writing in the World Book Encyclopedia, reflecting on this awesome discovery of nuclear power and energy, said this, and I quote. He said, nuclear energy is the most powerful kind of energy known to mankind. Now, when I read this, I stopped for a minute and I asked myself, is Mr. Weinberg correct?

You say, what did he say? He said, nuclear energy is the most powerful kind of energy known to mankind. The answer is, is he right? And I say that he isn't. Because right here in Colossians Chapter 1, God tells us that there is a power greater than nuclear power. Look with me in Chapter 1 of Colossians, beginning at verse 15. He, that is Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn over all creation, for by him, all things were created. By him, all things were created.

Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were the thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things were created by him and for him, verse 17. And he is before all things, and in him all things are held together. If you understand what these few verses are saying, they are telling us that Jesus Christ's power far surpasses anything we have ever seen with regard to nuclear power or any other kind of power. It tells us that the power of Jesus Christ is the power that made this universe, the power that made every atom in this universe. And verse 17 tells us, to be even more specific, that Jesus Christ by his own divine power holds together every single atom in the universe. Every proton, every neutron, every electron, every speck of nuclear energy exists by Jesus Christ's specific design and creative power, and it is completely at his disposal.

Nuclear power is small potatoes when compared to the incredible power of Jesus Christ, the living, risen Son of God. You say, Lon, why did you bring all this up, huh? What are we talking about? This morning I want to talk to you about the power of God. I want to talk to you about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, which is one of the most incredible displays of the power of God anywhere on record in human history. And then we want to answer the question, so what?

That's right. So let's turn back to the Gospel according to Luke, which is where we're studying. Luke chapter 1, a little easier to find because the New Testament goes, Matthew, Mark, Luke, easy. Third book in the New Testament, chapter 1, and let's look at this tremendous passage about the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm beginning in verse 26 of chapter 1 of Luke's Gospel. In the sixth month, verse 26 says, by the way, that's the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Remember last week we learned about Elizabeth who got pregnant.

That's what it's talking about. In the sixth month of her pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, to a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.

Whenever I take a trip to Israel, I just came back from taking a tour, it was my seventh time there, we always go to Nazareth and we always go to the little church of Saint Gabriel in Nazareth. This little church is built over the only running fountain of water ever known to exist in the city of Nazareth and it was actually built by the Crusaders, even though the church that's there today is built on the ruins of the Crusader church. And as you go inside of this beautiful little shrine, the condition says that it was here that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, while she was alone drawing water from the well, and that then from here they walked together back to her house where he made his great pronouncement about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I don't know for certain whether he appeared to her here at the well or not, but when you walk into this church, all over the walls and all over the ceilings are some of the most breathtaking paintings in all of Israel depicting Gabriel's announcement to Mary about the birth of Jesus Christ while all the hosts of heaven look on, all of the angels are gathered around and they're depicted as kind of peering in and wanting to see what is this thing that's going on, what is this thing that Gabriel is talking to Mary about. It's positively staggering to walk into this little church and be impressed with all around you this idea of what a special thing the birth of Jesus Christ was.

And every time I visit this church it reminds me that Jesus Christ did not come to earth in the usual way. The Bible declares that his was a unique birth for a unique person sent to accomplish a unique mission and what Gabriel announced to Mary was so incredulous that I suspect the angels of heaven really did stand around in awe and wonder at what was going on just like the murals in this church depict. Well what did Gabriel tell her? Verse 29. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this was. But the angel said to her, don't be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God and you shall be with child and give birth to a son and you're to give him the name Jesus. Jesus in Hebrew, Yehoshua or Yoshua for short, means God is salvation or God brings salvation or God saves. And he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will never end. Now everybody thinks they're kid special.

True? You think you're kid special. And I'm always amazed at how parents will say to me, now you know what they're doing? I really think I've got a prodigy here. This kid is actually beginning to say mom mine, dad dad, six months old. I think I've got a prodigy. And I just always smile because after you have three or four you begin realizing that even though they're special, they're not that many prodigies around. But everybody thinks their kid is something unique.

But this kid really is unique. Look at the great promises that Gabriel made. Her son would be great. He would be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord would give him the throne of his father David.

He would reign over the house of Israel forever and his kingdom would never end. Man, what a mouthful to promise anybody about their child and Mary was flabbergasted. But dear friends, what flabbergasted Mary was none of this information that Gabriel had just reeled off about how great her son was going to be.

That's not what really astonished her. Look at verse 34. And Mary said to the angel, how can this be?

How will this happen since I am a virgin? You say, aha, look, look at that unbelief and that doubt. No, no, that was not unbelief and doubt. Mary's asking a very reasonable question. You see, Mary was a virgin. The scripture is explicit, patently explicit on this issue. Two times in verse 27, the Bible says she was a virgin.

Right here in verse 34, she says to the angel Gabriel, hey, Gabriel, how can this be? I'm a virgin. If you read in Matthew chapter 1, the Bible says that Mary was engaged to Joseph but they had not yet come together.

That is, they had not yet had any kind of sexual relationship. If a person wants to say that they don't believe that Mary was a virgin, that's their choice. But if a person wants to try to say that the Bible never claims that Mary was a virgin, that's hogwash. The Bible claims, without apology, that this woman had never had sex with Joseph or anybody else for that matter and therefore, her having a baby, any baby, even a great baby, was absolutely impossible.

And that's the key word here. The key word is impossible. What the angel was telling Mary was going to happen to her was not improbable, unlikely, implausible or rare. It was impossible.

About as impossible as an apple falling off a tree and going up, about as impossible as the shortest distance between two points being a crooked line, about as impossible as two and two being anything else other than four. Those are natural laws that are always true. And hey, Mary's parents had gone over the birds and the bees with her. She knew about how this thing worked.

That's another natural law that's always true. And that's why she looked at the angel and she immediately recognized that what he was saying to her was going to happen could not happen as long as the laws of the universe held true. And so I don't think she was doubting him or unbelieving him, I just think she had a reasonable question.

And that is, how can this possibly happen? Well, the angel answered her. Look at verse 35. And the angel answered and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you so the Holy One that will be born will be called the Son of God. And even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month of pregnancy, the angel said, for nothing is impossible with God. The angel answered Mary's question. Mary said, how can this possibly be?

The laws of the universe won't permit it. The angel said, I'll tell you the answer. The answer is God is going to suspend the laws of the universe. Mary, he's done it for your relative Elizabeth and now he's going to do it for you, for with God, nothing is impossible. That's the simple answer that he gives Mary.

Look at Mary's response. Verse 38. She said, I am the Lord's servant. I belong to you, Lord. May it be unto me exactly the way you've said.

If this is what you want to do to me, Lord, then that's great. I may not understand it, but that's great. And then the angel left her. This is the announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ, commonly called the Annunciation, if you want the fancy word. And yet, in spite of the tremendous beauty of the passage, the question that we still have to answer for modern day living is what? So what?

That's right. And I want to spend the rest of our time now not defending the virgin birth because I've done that in other messages and if you want a defense of the virgin birth from a theological point of view, go out there and order one of the tapes and we've done that before. But I want to spend the rest of my time here assuming the virgin birth is true because I believe it's true and I hope you do, answering the question, well, in light of what we've read, if it's true, so what?

What difference does that make to me in the 20th century? And I have two so what's. I certainly don't, but there were two things here that were so pressing that I spent all week trying to figure out which one am I going to do and finally decided, well, why not do them both? So I am. And I hope both of them will be meaningful for you. So what number one is this? The events of the virgin birth teach us a great lesson about gods.